Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Tell me about your kid being an ungrateful wretch on holiday

226 replies

MorrisZapp · 16/10/2018 16:06

My son is 8 and we have just taken him on an amazing short break to London. Entire thing planned round him. Harry Potter tour, amazing lego shop, chain restaurants to satisfy his boring palate. We've had a great time but now heading home in hideous mood due to him being rude and ghastly in the last few hours of our trip.

I've just spent the last part of this holiday standing in Hyde Park in beautiful autumn sun having a three way raging row with DS and DP.

I never got given anything like this when I was a kid but I know my mum tore her hair out at our ingratitude and moaning when we did go on trips.

I'm not looking for advice, DS will grow up and become human, as I did.

I just want someone to say they've felt this frustration too, and maybe get some free gin or something... A AAAAAAAARGH

OP posts:
thismummydrinksgin · 17/10/2018 09:58

Oh my god this is every trip we go on ever!! 😂 with my muttering I'm not going to bother in the future. DH just as bad as kids. Ungrateful wankers the lot of them. Think with the kids they get a little overwhelmed and tired. #memories

Tentomidnight · 17/10/2018 10:03

I’ve found my people!

And it’s not just children now..
When I was a child, I don’t remember a single holiday which didn’t involve my mum flinging a suitcase on the hotel bed and shouting that she’d had enough of ‘this’ and was flying home. I suspect that ‘this’ was me and my sister Grin

Ratonastick · 17/10/2018 10:06

Disney, Paris. DS aged 3. The buzz lightyear induced meltdown still rates as the biggest tantrum he ever threw. Full on, laying on the ground, screaming, kicking, the works. I just sat there and watched. I had nothing left, I could do nothing, I was just so utterly exhausted by the who,e experience that I just sat there and watched him scream.

There were two types of people looking at me as they passed by. One lot had looks of deepest sympathy. I could feel the love and support flowing from them. The others looked at me and judged, oh how they judged.

And that, my friends, is how you tell the difference between those who have just arrived at Disney and those who have been there for 3 days,

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Families
Original poster
MorrisZapp · 17/10/2018 10:20

Yes to the random highlights! All that money and hassle, come to think of it the thing he was most genuinely enthusiastic about was a wooden climbing frame near the London Eye. In the drizzle.

OP posts:
Lweji · 17/10/2018 10:46

He's 8!

At 5 I had to leave the children's Proms at intermission because the following visit to the NHM to see the dinosaurs didn't come soon enough.
My fault, really.

serbska · 17/10/2018 10:57

An 8 year old being a foul little shit right at the end of an fabulous but very full break?

I'd say he is probably very tired, over excited and over stimulated and would benefit from a hug and some down time and is unable ot handle his emotions about the end of the break.

serbska · 17/10/2018 11:09

It was too hot for them & they basically ate chips & strawberries for 10 days.

My mum says that on our holidays when I was a toddler I only ate chips and strawberry ice cream. She says I was a dream to take on holiday but I strongly suspect that's because she never made an issue out of me only eating chips and strawberry ice cream on holiday Grin

WickedGoodDoge · 17/10/2018 11:17

One story for each child.

When DS was five we went to WDW. Great holiday until the last day when he was in the pool and he hit another child. I made him apologise and told him off. Then he hit another child. I said if he didn’t behave we would leave. Yep, he hit a third child. He then refused to leave the pool and had a complete meltdown. I picked him up and carried this screaming, kicking, hitting, pinching child back to the room while everyone watched. I can only assume he was overtired/overheated at the end of a long busy holiday, but my God, I’ve never seen anything like it.

This August we did a split holiday in Vancouver and Whistler. DD(13) was a bit fan of Once Upon a Time and begged to go to Steveston to see where it had been filmed. So we went. Only by time we went, she had gone off the show and spent most of the holiday in a mood. She would walk miles behind us, dragging her feet and making it absolutely clear that she did not want to be there. She was utter misery.

In Whistler we eventually gave her some money and a room key and let her go off to explore on her own a few times, mostly to give us a break from her and it did cheer her up a bit.

Now, just a few months later, she’s been declaring it a great holiday and so much fun! Go figure.

myusernamewastakenbyme · 17/10/2018 11:38

Children suck the joy out of holidays....i now leave my 15 year old dd at her dads whilst i bugger off somewhere.

PiperPublickOccurrences · 17/10/2018 11:55

We totally lost the plot with our kids first time we took them to Florida, they were about 7 and 9. It was constant "what are we doing next" "what's happening tomorrow?" Unable yo enjoy what they were doing NOW and just appreciate that they were having an amazing experience.

Womanlikeme · 17/10/2018 12:01

I hate that always wanting to move on to the next thing instead of enjoying the present. ‘How long now?’ is dd’s favourite phrase and drives me demented.

Original poster
MorrisZapp · 17/10/2018 12:06

Oh the what next syndrome! DS went through the Science Museum like a dose of salts. What's through here? I want to go over there. Let's go upstairs, etc etc. Refusing to stop and look at bloody anything.

OP posts:
thaegumathteth · 17/10/2018 12:09

Dd (8) was in a mood yesterday and told me we never do anything fun. Off the top of my head we’ve been to Disney, Alton towers, Blackpool, several zoos, Drayton manor and god knows what else in the last 6 months. I know she doesn’t mean it but I did feel like shaking her!

FWIW ds (11!!!) is always stressy and grumpy at big events / holidays etc
I think it’s because he gets so hyped up.

Dontfeellikeamillenial · 17/10/2018 12:14

Oh yes I feel you.

I was 8 and we went to Disney in Florida. 2 weeks. Disney, Epcot, Sea World, then a week on the Florida Keys. I wrote on a postcard to my grandparents that the hotel was rubbish Confused my parents quite rightly threw a fit and told me how ungrateful I was etc etc.

Kids really don't appreciate stuff at that age. As you say you're better off at the local park!

Dontfeellikeamillenial · 17/10/2018 12:18

A few years later my parents, who obviously didn't learn, decided to take me and my brother on a two week tour of Italy. Venice. Florence. Rome. Pisa. Pompeii.

There's a pic of me there at the Colesseum, pouting like a fish. I remember moaning about all the unpacking and packing Confused. I'd give my right feckin arm now for two weeks in Italy!

Pebblespony · 17/10/2018 12:19

I actually don't feel too bad now for ruining our family holidays when I was a teenager. I was carrying a fair bit of guilt over being horrible but it seems it wasn't just me. Never bringing DD on holiday though. She's only 14 months and already showing a lot of 'personality'.

Lovethetimeyouhave · 17/10/2018 12:26

Gosh the first 2 days on holiday with ds(6) were horrific! He ran off (not allowed at home so why on holiday?) Screamed, acted like a brat! I ended up really having a go at him because he was claiming I was ruining his holiday by NOT letting him act like a brat! I threatened to take him home.

It was our first holiday together and he almost ruined it until I went mental and said it is also my holiday and his behaviour was ruining it for everyone!!

AccidentallyRunToWindsor · 17/10/2018 12:29

I really diddnt need to read this before I take my DSC on holiday for the first time next week....

AccidentallyRunToWindsor · 17/10/2018 12:31

My parents took me on a tour of SE Asia on my teenage years, not once but twice.

Notable highlights include me moaning that there were no strawberry milkshakes in McDonald's, forcing my poor mum to trek round multiple cafes in search of a western style toilet and my refusal to dress modestly so we couldn't go onto some temples.

What a little shit I was.

ASAS · 17/10/2018 12:34

It's just standard though isn't it?! If you're child doesn't announce they're bored in Disney World are you even IN Disney World.

user450246 · 17/10/2018 13:00

Has anybody ever totted up the amount spent on holidays where their main memory is of the dc moaning? The highlight of this summer for them was trying to kill the flies in the villa we rented. Could’ve had a really luxurious bathroom...

Dontfeellikeamillenial · 17/10/2018 13:04

and my refusal to dress modestly so we couldn't go onto some temples.
^^

I wasn't allowed in the Sistine Chapel because my skirt was too short. I think my mum wrapped a towel round my waist. Not that I was bothered about seeing inside some stupid church, like.
GrinHmm

Dandybelle · 17/10/2018 13:08

Took 4 year old DD to the dominican in July. In hindsight no idea what I was thinking, it was sweltering and all she wanted to do was be in the pool meaning she had no naps and was exhausted a lot and the hardest work she's ever been. I remember sitting on the hotel bed watching her throwing things around the room and screaming and just waiting for it to stop.

2 weeks later we went to Anglesey with my DP's enormous family and their children and all stayed in a massive house with huge gardens literally on the beach. She was a delight, absolutely no bother at all and so polite.

Skipping abroad holiday next year, just doing Anglesey. Was SO much more enjoyable.

user450246 · 17/10/2018 13:09

i loved history as a kid (still do), I remember my mum taking me to (what felt like) every site of historical interest in Cyprus when I was 15, and me acting totally bored. Who'd be a parent?

slimjemima · 17/10/2018 13:16

It sounds absolutely exhaustin.He was acting up because he was tired out!

Swipe left for the next trending thread